Nol Pros
by Vol lady
Summary: Jarrod is missing - sort of. He's been abducted - kind of.
1. Chapter 1

(Note – I'm not sure the Nol Prosequi (a prosecutor declining to prosecute someone) was available to prosecutors in California in the 1870s since it looks like it might have been revoked by statute in 1851, but I am letting them have it for the sake of this story)

Nol Pros

Chapter 1

"Well, I don't know where he's gotten to," Nick said as the family – absent Jarrod - made its way from the parlor to the dining room for dinner. "He didn't say anything about being late tonight."

"Things come up," Victoria said. "I'm sure he'll come in later and fill us in in the morning."

"I really need to talk to him," Nick said. "That deal I've got in the works for more land for vineyards isn't gonna close itself. I need the paperwork drawn up."

"I think you'd know how to draft those things yourself by now, Nick," Heath said. "How much vineyard land have you bought in the past couple years?"

"Not enough to make me like the paperwork," Nick said. "That's Jarrod's job. That's how he earns his keep around here."

"Earns his keep?" Audra said. "I wasn't aware our oldest brother was just an employee."

"Everybody around here earns his keep," Nick said as they all sat down. "Rule number 1 on a working ranch."

"I thought rule number 1 was family comes first," Audra said with a smirk.

Nick replied with a fake snarl.

"He'll get to you as soon as he can, I'm sure," Victoria said.

They went on with dinner, half expecting Jarrod to come in the door at any time, but even after coffee, even after it was time to get to bed, Jarrod wasn't there. Nick was irritated, but no one was really worried. Jarrod coming home very late was nothing new. They'd see him in the morning.

Except they didn't see him in the morning. When they gathered for breakfast, Jarrod did not come down.

"He's probably oversleeping," Victoria said after they had said grace. "If he came in late, he wouldn't be ready to get up at five o'clock."

"Mother, I don't think he ever came in," Heath said.

"I'll go check on him," Nick said, and in a minute or so he was knocking at Jarrod's door.

When he didn't get an answer, Nick opened the door quietly, in case Jarrod was still asleep. He wasn't. He was not there, and his bed had not been slept in.

Nick was still more irritated than worried. Jarrod would probably either be home by dinner or would send word as to where he was and what he was up to. But when Nick got back down to the dining room and said, "He didn't come home last night," Victoria looked a bit uneasy.

"Not at all?" Victoria asked.

"I wouldn't worry, Mother," Nick said as he sat back down. "You know how he can get when he gets to working. It can suddenly be the middle of the night and he ends up just sleeping in his office or at the hotel."

"I suppose," Victoria said, "but if he isn't home this evening, perhaps you'd better check on him."

Nick and Heath gave each other looks. It was possible that big brother had spent his night somewhere other than his office or a hotel, but they wouldn't speculate about that in front of their mother or sister, even if neither of the women had any illusions about the extracurricular activities of the Barkley men. But neither Nick nor Heath was aware of any woman in Jarrod's life. Sometimes they wished there were one – there hadn't been one since Beth - but then, they knew how secretive Jarrod could be about his women. For all they knew, there was someone he was seeing regularly, and they just didn't know about her.

But Nick said, "All right. We'll head into town after dinner if he hasn't come in."

He didn't come in.

XXXXXXX

Victoria was worried now, in part because she could tell Nick and Heath were worried. As she saw them off at the door after dinner, she said, "I'll stay up until you get back."

They each gave her a kiss. "Don't worry, Mother," Nick said. "We'll track him down and haul him home, even if he brings a boxload of work with him."

"He works too hard," Victoria said. "We've got to break him of that habit before he works himself into exhaustion."

"We've tried and failed at that, Mother," Heath said. "He just gets dug in so deep sometimes that he can't stop."

"Nevertheless, bring him home tonight," Victoria said.

They each nodded and hurried off.

They did not talk much as the rode into town. There was no moon, so the light was pretty faint. They had to be extra careful to concentrate on where they were going, to avoid ruts and other obstacles. They made it into Stockton a little later than they otherwise would have, but the saloons were still lively. They headed straight for Jarrod's office.

There was no light on there. They tried the door anyway and it was locked tight. Wherever he was, he wasn't in his office. "Let's try the hotel and then Big Annie's and his regular saloons," Nick said.

"We'll be here all night," Heath said.

They went to the hotel and found out that Jarrod was not registered there. Big Annie hadn't seen him either. That sent them to Harry's saloon, with plans to hit all Jarrod's other regular haunts before they tried to find the sheriff. Luckily, the sheriff was coming out of Harry's as they were coming in.

"Fred," Nick said in greeting.

"Evening, boys," the sheriff said to them. "What brings you to town this late?"

"Our wayward big brother," Nick said. "Have you seen him?"

"Not since yesterday afternoon when he was heading home," the sheriff said.

Nick and Heath looked at each other, both of them suddenly cold. "Yesterday?" Heath asked.

"Yeah, about four," Sheriff Madden said. "I talked to him a bit. He said he was going home."

Nick and Heath scowled at each other now.

"Don't tell me he didn't make it there," Sheriff Madden said.

"Not last night, not all day today," Heath said.

"He's not seeing anybody that you know of, is he, Fred?" Nick asked.

Sheriff Madden shook his head. "Not that I know of, but you know how he can be about his women."

"Yeah, too damned quiet," Nick said.

"What do you want to do, Nick?" Heath asked. "Keep looking?"

"I don't think we're gonna find him," Nick said.

"I'm making rounds," Sheriff Madden said. "If I see him, I'll let him know you're looking for him."

"He didn't look uneasy about anything when he left yesterday, did he, Fred?" Heath asked.

The sheriff shook his head. "No, not at all."

"We better head home," Nick said. "Mother will be worried about all three of us if we don't. Fred, we'll come see you tomorrow, regardless."

"Good," Sheriff Madden said. "If Jarrod turns up, I'd like to know about it before I organize a search party."

"Let's deal with that tomorrow if we have to, Fred," Nick said.

Nick and Heath left the sheriff to continue his rounds then, but for a moment they just stood in the street near their horses. "We better get going, Nick," Heath said. "If we're lucky, he'll be home waiting for us."

Nick shook his head. "He won't be there. I don't know where he is, but it's not at home. Something's going on. I don't know if he's behind it or somebody's grabbed him, but he's gone."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Victoria and Audra were both still up when Nick and Heath got home. They were in the parlor, seated at the settee, but they jumped up when Nick and Heath came in. Their faces fell when they saw Jarrod wasn't with him.

"What did you find out?" Victoria asked.

Nick shook his head. "Fred Madden says he spoke to Jarrod yesterday afternoon and Jarrod was on his way home. He hasn't seen him since."

"You don't think he was shanghaied?" Audra said.

Nick quickly shook his head at that. "There's nothing that says that, and Stockton hasn't had a shanghai problem since Barbary Red went to prison."

Audra looked worried. Victoria tried not to, but her eyes darkened anyway. "Did you look around town for him?"

"We didn't find him anywhere and just came on home after we talked to the sheriff," Heath said. "Nick and I are thinking something happened to him on his way home yesterday."

"But you didn't see anything of him on the road?" Victoria asked.

"No," Nick said. "It's dark out there, but we didn't see anything of his horse or him. If he was down in the road or even off the road, somebody would have seen him today, or his horse, or one or both of them would be home by now. If he isn't home by morning, Heath and I will go back into town and Fred said he'd get a search party together."

"You don't have any idea at all where he might have gone?" Audra asked.

"Fred said he was coming home," Nick said. "Obviously, he didn't get here. Listen, I know you're both worried but we all need to get some rest."

Victoria nodded. "If we don't find him tomorrow, we're going to need it."

Nick put his arm around his mother, and Heath put his around Audra. No one knew what to say then. They just headed up to bed.

XXXXXXX

Breakfast was a solemn time the next morning. Jarrod still had not come home, and now he'd been gone for two nights and everyone was seriously worried.

"Maybe we should go to town with you," Audra suggested.

Nick had a fleeting vision of finding his brother dead off the side of the road. He wouldn't want his mother or sister to see that. He shook his head. "It wouldn't help anything, and if he's just gone off on one of his side trips, he might turn up here."

"Nick's right," Victoria said. "Somebody needs to stay here, in case he turns up or – " She stopped.

"In case somebody's taken him and we get a ransom demand," Heath said as gently as he could. "If we do, you need to send a runner to town right away."

"Of course," Victoria said.

Nick and Heath were both finished and got up. "We'll see Fred first thing and get a search party together," Nick said. He kissed both his mother and sister. "Try not to worry. He'll probably turn up and tell us he had an emergency in Lodi or something like that."

As Heath kissed her cheek, Victoria said, "If he does, I'll box his ears."

"And so will I," Audra said.

The brief laugh broke the tension, but Nick and Heath knew it would be right back as soon as they left. They were saddled and off to Stockton in only a few minutes. As they rode, they kept a close eye out for any signs along the way, but they were almost all the way into Stockton when Heath suddenly spotted something in the road. "Pull up, Nick."

Nick stopped as Heath dismounted and bent over some tracks in the road. Nick leaned down to see what Heath was looking at.

Heath said, "Something happened here. There are several tracks, all coming together, and stopping and starting up again."

"Can you see if any of them are from Jarrod's horse?" Nick asked.

Heath said, "It's hard to tell, they're all so confused." He looked around, leaning closer to the ground. Suddenly he pointed. "Here. This might be his. He got that new shoe on the left rear the other day. This might be it."

"Where do the tracks go from here?" Nick asked.

Heath stood up straight. "Back toward Stockton, though I'll bet they leave the road somewhere."

As Heath remounted, Nick said, "We best find where. If this is Jarrod and somebody's got him, I want to get him back fast."

They pushed on toward Stockton, but they didn't go very far before the group of tracks left the road and cut across the open fields. They were able to follow the disturbance in the grass but once the tracks crossed a small stream, the grass was trampled and eaten down by cattle and the turf was hard as rock, and they lost the tracks completely. They sat there by the stream, looking everywhere. This was a place they didn't know well.

"What's the nearest farm or ranch?" Heath asked.

Nick squinted into the sun. "Old Man Wayne's place, I reckon," Nick said, pointing to the northwest.

"I guess we better try there first," Heath said, "but we better take it slow, in case something's happening there."

"Yeah," Nick agreed, nodding.

They rode on, cresting a hill where they stopped. There was a wooded area in front of them with only a narrow trail going through.

"Wayne's place is down through these trees," Nick said, "maybe another mile or so."

"Let's go quiet," Heath said.

They moved along carefully, looking everywhere and finding nothing that would be helpful. It wasn't very long before Nick stopped Heath and spoke to him quietly. "Wayne's house is just beyond the trees. It faces this way. We should go in on foot in case somebody who doesn't belong there is there."

They both dismounted and tethered their horses to trees. Then they removed their rifles and started walking, slowly and quietly. As they got to the edge of the wood, they stopped. Wayne's front porch was right in front of them about a hundred feet away. A big open front yard was between them and the porch.

There were two men on the porch. They were armed, but only with sidearms that were holstered. They were both smoking cigarettes. Both Nick and Heath squinted to get a better look.

"Those are just kids," Heath said quietly. "Can't be more than sixteen or seventeen."

"That might mean they're more dangerous than we think," Nick said. "Even if Jarrod isn't in there, Mr. Wayne is, and this is trouble."

"But I'll bet you Jarrod's in there," Heath said.

Nick took a deep breath. He was scared. He had to keep his hands from trembling, and he had to keep his temper from flaring up and taking him over. "Yeah," Nick said. "He's in there for sure."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"How do you want to do this?" Heath asked.

Nick said, "Let's go in there together. Cock your rifle when I cock mine so they know we mean business. I don't know what this is all about so we better keep these rifles handy and be ready to jump for cover."

Nick started into the yard, heading for the house, Heath right beside him. The two men on the porch went straight into alert. Nick and Heath quickly cocked their rifles.

"Let's make this peaceful," Nick said. "I'd rather not shoot you, and I'd sure rather you not shoot me. Just bring our brother out."

The two men didn't move.

"Jarrod Barkley!" Nick yelled. "I want him out here right now!"

"I'm right here, Nick," Jarrod's voice came from the door. He came out, closing the door behind him. The two men on the porch still hadn't moved.

"Are you all right, Jarrod?" Heath asked.

"I'm fine," Jarrod said.

"Where's your horse?" Nick asked.

"In the barn," Jarrod said, "but I'm not leaving, Nick."

Now Nick and Heath looked surprised and angry. "Are you here on your own, Jarrod?" Heath asked.

"I am," Jarrod said. "I'm here with a client. We're trying to work something out."

"For two days?" Nick said, unbelieving. "And not telling us where you'd gone?"

"I'm sorry about that," Jarrod said. "This came up very fast and I just haven't had a chance to let you know where I was."

Nick and Heath didn't believe a word of it. Their brother's demeanor was off, even if his words were designed to be calming. And he would never have left the family wondering what happened to him for days. He'd have sent word, unless he wasn't free to. "What do you want us to do?" Nick asked.

"Go on home," Jarrod said. "I might be here for a couple more days, but everything is all right. This business is just gonna take a while."

Nick and Heath hesitated.

"Go on," Jarrod said. "Everything's all right."

Reluctantly, Nick and Heath both put their rifles up. "You let us know if you're gonna be more than three more days," Nick said.

"I might be," Jarrod said. "Just tell Mother not to worry. I'll be there when I get there. Go on home. Everything's all right."

Nick gave an ugly look at the two men on the porch, but he and Heath backed off, moving back out of the yard and into the trees. In a minute or so they were mounting up.

"Now what?" Heath asked.

"I don't believe a word he said," Nick said.

"What do we do about it?" Heath asked. "We don't know how many men might be in there with him or what's going on with old man Wayne."

Nick said. "Jarrod was warning us off because there are more of them inside. We can't get him out on our own. We're going to town to see Fred."

"They might not be here when we get back."

"I know," Nick said, "but I don't think we have any choice."

Jarrod waited on the porch until he heard Nick and Heath ride off into the distance. Then he finally breathed again and slowly went back into the house.

The young man waiting for him had his handgun on Jarrod. He reholstered it when Jarrod came in and closed the door behind him. Two other young men – boys, really – in the room holstered their guns, too.

"Nicely done, Counselor," the young man running things said.

"They might buy that for a day or two, but they'll be back with help by day 3," Jarrod said, knowing darned well his brothers hadn't bought any of it and they'd be back soon. "Sandy, if you're serious about all this, we have to wrap it up and let me get to the sheriff by tomorrow morning. We've already been taking too much time."

The young man said, "I'm serious. I want to wrap this up too, but you have to be more helpful, Counselor."

Jarrod gave a glance to a back bedroom, where an old man sat in a straight-backed chair, bound and gagged, and frightened. "What about Mr. Wayne? Until you let him go, I'm not gonna agree to a damned thing."

"I'm letting him go right now," Sandy said. "You and the rest of us are gonna pack up and move out. Your men are gonna be back this afternoon and you know it."

Jarrod wasn't surprised to hear that Sandy knew it. "Where are we going?"

"Someplace else," Sandy said, and then he started issuing orders to pack up some food and get the horses ready.

"Untie Mr. Wayne, at least," Jarrod said.

Sandy shook his head. "I don't want him swinging at me again and I don't want to hurt him. He won't be stuck like that for long."

Jarrod sighed, exasperated. Sandy was right. Nick and Heath would be back soon, with help, but all they would find would be Mr. Wayne, the owner of this little farm, probably still bound and gagged in the bedroom. Jarrod gave the man an apologetic look. At least they would leave the old man alive and healthy. If Sandy was serious about the deal he was trying to get Jarrod to represent him on, they wouldn't kill anyone, or even hurt anyone. But Jarrod knew there was always the chance he'd be wrong.

Everyone but Mr. Wayne left in less than half an hour, riding south. Mr. Wayne was left in the bedroom, tied and gagged, and all alone.

XXXXXXXX

Nick and Heath went straight to the sheriff's office. As they were hitching their horses, Heath said, "We ought to send some kind of word to Mother."

"I know," Nick said as they went into the office. "I'm just not sure what to say."

They found the sheriff putting new wanted posters on his wall. He stopped, asking anxiously, "Did you find him?"

"Yeah, sort of," Nick said.

"What do you mean, 'sort of'?" the sheriff asked.

"He's with at least two men we didn't know out at old man Wayne's place," Heath said.

"He's all right and he says he's there on business," Nick said, "but we're not buying it. They're holding him for some reason and he wasn't free to talk."

"They probably had old man Wayne inside and Jarrod didn't want to risk they'd hurt him," Heath said. "We need you and some men to go out there with us and see if we can get them out."

"How many of them do you think there are?" the sheriff asked.

"We saw two on the outside, don't know how many there are on the inside," Nick said.

The sheriff headed for the door. "I'll go gather up four or five men and we'll get going as fast as we can."

XXXXXXX

Jarrod rode in the middle of the pack of men who worked for Sandy Bowes. He was not bound, but there was no real way for him to escape. Too many men surrounded him. He took the time they rode to memorize everything he could about each of them.

Men. They were boys, not even in their twenties. Jarrod knew that Sandy was in his early twenties. The wanted poster in Sheriff Madden's office told him that. Jarrod hadn't really paid much attention to Sandy and his crimes, but he did know that he was keen on robbing stagecoaches and so far he hadn't killed or even injured anyone. Just robbed them blind.

Jarrod still remembered his astonishment when Sandy's men took him off the road home from Stockton two days before and he confronted Sandy Bowes for the first time.

_The kid looked even younger than his wanted poster said he was. As soon as he found out what Sandy wanted from him, Jarrod was even more astonished. "I want you to cut a deal for me with the law," he had said to Jarrod._

"_What kind of deal?" Jarrod asked._

"_A deal to get me free and out of California," Sandy said. "I want to change the way I'm living. My boys here, there aren't any wanted posters on them and they can just scatter and be fine, but my face is all over the place. I want to stop the bounty hunters and the law looking for me. I want a deal."_

"_Deals require quid pro quo," Jarrod said._

"_Quid what?" Sandy asked._

"_Quid pro quo. It's Latin. It means you gotta give something to get something. What do you have to give?"_

"_Money," Sandy said. "Not all we've taken, obviously, because I've had to pay my boys and they've mostly spent theirs already. But I have my share – the lion's share – hidden away. I'll give it back to buy my freedom."_

_Jarrod was intrigued, but didn't think the offer would get Sandy the deal he wanted. Still, he wasn't about to say that. He couldn't say "I can't help you" with several guns pointed at his back. He had to play for time._

"_All right," Jarrod had said. "Let's talk."_


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Nick and Heath led the sheriff and five other men back to the Wayne farm, and again, they took it quiet and slow. But this time there was no one on the porch. All of the sheriff's men waited at the edge of the wood, looking at the house.

"What do you think?" the sheriff asked.

"They could all be inside," Nick said. "They probably expected us to come back."

"Then they might have left," Heath said. "Let me work around to the other side of the barn, see if there are any horses in there."

The sheriff nodded his okay, and Heath quietly eased through the wood. He had to make a quick run over open ground to get to the barn, but he did it without drawing any fire from anywhere. The back door to the barn was open. Heath took a quick look inside, then went in all the way. There was only one horse in the barn.

Heath's heart sank. The men who had been here might have stashed their horses elsewhere, but Heath got the unhappy feeling that they had all pulled out. The only real question was, what would they find inside the house? Nobody, or two dead hostages?

Heath made his way back to the others. "The barn only has one horse. They might have pulled out."

Nick looked at him, frightened. Jarrod could be dead inside the house.

"Let's go," the sheriff said.

They approached with rifles cocked and ready, but the place was completely quiet. By the time they got to the porch, they were all pretty sure they were not going to be meeting any guns around here today. Nick looked into one of the windows. "There's nobody in there," he said.

Heath opened the door, and when no gunfire came their way, they rushed the place. The living room was empty. The door to the bedroom was open, and Mr. Wayne still sat there, bound and gagged, only now he was trying to yell for help.

As the sheriff went to untie Mr. Wayne, Nick and Heath looked at each other. "At least he's not dead in here," Heath said.

"But where in the world is he now?" Nick asked.

"Sandy Bowes!" Wayne started yelling as soon as the sheriff removed the gag. "It was Sandy Bowes and his gang!"

"How many?" the sheriff asked.

"Bowes and four others," Wayne said as he was untied. "They have Jarrod Barkley. They took him with them."

"What do they want with him?" Nick asked as one of the men helped Wayne into the living room.

"Bowes wants to make some kind of deal and he wants Jarrod to work it out, or something like that," Wayne said, and then someone took him out back to the necessary.

"That makes sense," Heath said. "They probably snatched him and Bowes is trying to work out how to get Jarrod to take the deal to whoever he's trying to work it out with. Jarrod had to go along because they had Mr. Wayne."

Nick nodded. "If that's what they're up to, Bowes figured we'd be back and they've gone to find someplace else to hole up and take hostages."

The sheriff sighed. "But finding out where is gonna be tough."

"I'll go out and see if I can find any tracks to help us out," Heath said and went back outside.

Frustrated, Nick just stood there, trying to think. Where would they go now? There were a dozen farms and ranches within a day's ride, probably more. Nick figured they'd have to go somewhere out of the way but with people – they'd need hostages to get Jarrod to go along with whatever it was they were doing. Jarrod would not cooperate the way he was unless someone else was threatened.

The sheriff looked Nick's way. "We'll find him, Nick."

Nick just nodded.

XXXXXXX

Bowes's men had driven Jarrod maybe ten miles before Jarrod felt like it was time to make a move. He couldn't let them find another hostage or maybe more to make him cooperate, but they had him so surrounded he couldn't figure out how to make a run for it. He finally decided on another tactic. He just pulled to a stop.

One of the men hit Jarrod's horse on the rump to get it to move again, but Jarrod held back on the reins and kept his horse where they were. "No," Jarrod said flatly. "This is enough. I'm not gonna let you take another hostage, not a one."

Sandy pulled his revolver on Jarrod and cocked it. "You can die right here, Counselor," he said.

"No," Jarrod said. "I can still do what you want me to do and do it without you taking another hostage. If you're serious about changing your ways, I'll see if I can cut a deal for you. I'll take your offer to town and I'll make sure no one follows me back to you."

Sandy hesitated, but then uncocked his gun and reholstered it. "Any deal has to let my boys go free and get me out of California."

Jarrod decided to try something. "Let your boys go now. You won't need them to keep me corralled. I've got a lot of reasons to help you – every single stage you might rob in the future and anybody else you might take hostage. Let your boys go now."

"Sandy – " one of his men said.

Sandy looked around. "No, he makes sense."

"You believe him?"

"There's no risk to you boys. You can just ride off right now. Stick together or go your separate ways. There's no risk for you. Nobody has your name or your picture. You all take off right now, and you're free."

His men looked at each other. One of them looked like he wanted to stay together and keep robbing stagecoaches, but abruptly the other three took off, heading further south at a quicker clip. The last one gave Sandy a look, but then he was gone, too.

Sandy and Jarrod were left together, alone. Sandy said, "I'm trusting you, lawyer. But you take off on me or try to cross me, I'll kill you."

Jarrod nodded. "I know a place we can hole up. No one will find us. We'll work on this deal you want, and I'll take it to the law in Stockton. I won't run on you even after I'm out of your sight. Like I said, I've got an interest in seeing you change your ways."

"Where are you planning we go?"

Jarrod nodded toward the northwest. "There's an old unused line shack at the edge of Barkley property, about two miles away. It's not in great shape, but it will do the trick and no one will bother us. You work with me and I get a deal I can take to the law, and you might be on your way out of California by this time tomorrow."

Sandy nodded. "All right. Let's go."

XXXXXXX

Heath looked as hard as he could, but the tracks leaving the Wayne place were not very clear. He came back to the house as everyone inside came outside. Heath shook his head. "It looks like they're heading south outta here, but we're likely to lose these tracks again before long."

The sheriff told one of his men to take Mr. Wayne into town to have the doctor look at him. Then he asked, "Well, Nick, Heath, what do you want to do?"

"Follow the tracks as far as we can," Nick said quickly. "Jarrod's horse is still in that bunch, isn't it?"

Heath nodded. "It looks like it."

"Then we gotta keep looking," Nick said.

"Then the rest of us are with you," the sheriff said.

Nick asked the man who was going to take Mr. Wayne to town to go out to the Barkley ranch, but then he stuttered a little bit on what to have him tell his mother and sister. He finally said, "Tell my mother we know Jarrod is all right and we're going after him. Tell her we might be a while."

Heath gave a big sigh as the man took off. "I wish we knew more about why Bowes had him. It might help."

"Well, we don't," Nick said, "so we assume Bowes might kill him if he doesn't keep cooperating and we aren't careful."

"Working on some kind of deal," Heath mused. "You don't think that kid might be planning to surrender, do you?"

"I don't know," Nick said. "I just want to get Jarrod away from him and the sooner, the better."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The line shack was everything Jarrod promised it would be – ramshackle with one wall partially caved in and the roof sagging. They went inside, and the first thing Bowes said, "Are you telling me the Barkleys can't afford better line shacks than this?"

Jarrod actually laughed a little. "Yeah, we should have torn this down by now. It's not used at all anymore except maybe by the vermin and the fox and a bear or two."

There was a table with two broken chairs and two fairly good ones. The stove pipe was collapsed into the room so the stove was unusable, but they didn't need it for warmth and they could make coffee and cook food over a fire outside if need be.

Jarrod watched Sandy unload the food and coffee from his saddlebag, and suddenly he felt sorry for the kid. They had talked a lot over the past couple days and even more when it was just the two of them on the way here. Jarrod had come to know him more than he ever thought he would, but Jarrod still had hard questions to ask him. Whatever had led him to this kind of life? It was obvious it wasn't a life he was meant for – he was working awfully hard to give it up now. "Sandy," Jarrod said, "just how did you get into robbing stagecoaches for a living?"

"It was easy money," Sandy said.

"Yet now you want out of it."

"It's not so easy once your face is out there on wanted posters."

His answers weren't much, but Jarrod tried to keep at it. "Where are you from? Where's your family?"

"No family," Sandy said. "My pa died, my mother remarried and her new man didn't want me around. They cut me loose when I was fifteen."

"Any brothers or sisters?"

"No. Why all the questions?"

"Just trying to get a better hold on what I can use to argue on your behalf once we come up with a deal. If you can't give all the money back, I'm gonna need something else to work with."

"All right," Sandy said. "What else do you want?"

"Something to make the law believe you'll go straight and stay that way. Family would be helpful."

"Well, they ain't around."

Jarrod sat down at the table and tried to relax. "Then we need to work on something else," he said.

"Maybe I don't want to answer any more questions," Sandy said.

Jarrod said, "If you want me to help you to the best of my ability, you're going to have to trust me. You have to help me put together the picture of a man who's worth setting free."

"All right," Sandy said and sat down in the other chair. "I'm not a killer. I've never hurt anybody. I've just robbed people to stay alive."

"When did your pa die?" Jarrod asked.

"I was thirteen. I tried to get work to take care of my ma – I worked in a store, I worked in livery stable, I worked wherever I could find it, but it wasn't enough. So she married this farmer and I got the boot."

"Where did all this happen?"

"Southern part of California, town called Appleton. Ain't no apples in Appleton, or I'd have tried picking them, too."

Jarrod had to smile at that. "Are you ever in touch with your ma?"

"No. I don't even know if she's still alive. When I got the boot, I got the boot."

"Did you try any honest work before you started robbing stages?"

Sandy nodded. "I worked a couple ranches."

"Why didn't they work out?"

"At the first one, the boss's daughter took a shine to me, and the boss didn't like it, so I got the boot again," Sandy said, and his eyes took on a faraway look Jarrod recognized.

"You took a shine to her, too, didn't you?"

Sandy looked down at the table. "It doesn't matter now."

"Did you get the boot at the next place too?" Jarrod asked.

"I broke a leg when I got thrown from a horse, and they cut me loose. Hard to find honest work with a busted leg. You shoulda seen me the first time I tried robbing a stage with my leg all trussed up." Sandy actually chuckled a little. "It worked though. And that's how I got into it."

Jarrod started to sympathize with Sandy. The deal life had handed him was a bad one. He actually started to want to get him a good one. "What about your boys? Same kind of story?"

"I don't know," Sandy said. "I just picked them up along the way. I guess they were cut loose one way or the other too because none of them is very old." Sandy looked up at Jarrod. "Stinking way of living – but there wasn't any other way for any of us."

"What do you think they'll do now? Stick together and keep robbing stagecoaches?" Jarrod asked.

Sandy shrugged. "I don't know. I just know I wanna get done with it and get on to Nevada."

"Sandy, you're not gonna be able to get a deal if you're just going back to robbing stages in another state," Jarrod said. "I gotta be able to give the prosecutor some assurance you'll go straight."

"If you're asking me to get a job lined up, how the hell am I supposed to do that? Nobody's gonna hire me with a bounty on my head. You gotta convince the law about that. I don't know how I can promise anything except by what I already did – cut my boys loose, give you my money, let that hostage live and agree with you not to take any more. Get me a stack of bibles, and I'll swear on them. Ain't much else I can do."

Jarrod wasn't sure whether to say what he wanted to say next, but he decided to try. "Give the law the names of your boys."

"No, no, I won't do that," Sandy said. "Them being set loose is part of the deal, and I've already done that. They ain't gonna do anything without me."

"How can you be so sure?"

"I know 'em. They ain't gonna risk getting their faces on wanted posters. They'll drift apart and that'll be the end of them robbing stages."

"You can't guarantee that."

"No, but I won't give their names over. I won't do it."

Jarrod tried thinking some more. "If you went into Stockton with me to make your offer, they might take it more seriously."

"No, I can't risk that," Sandy said and got up, wandering in circles. "I do that and there's no reason for them to give me any deal at all. I'll be right there in their paws without the deal."

Jarrod had to admit that was true, of course. He tried to think of something else that would convince the sheriff and the DA that Sandy would go straight, but absent a family or a job he could say he was going to, it was going to be tough. Jarrod thought about getting the Barkleys to offer him work, but Sandy had said in no uncertain terms right off the bat that he was leaving California, deal or no deal.

Jarrod said, "Sandy, I'll do the best I can for you, but we do have to get to work and come up with something convincing, and do it by tomorrow morning. The longer I'm missing, the lower your chances of getting a deal will be."

Sandy sat down again. "All right. I already put all the money I have on the table."

"How much is that?"

"All I've taken since I started robbing stages, except for what I paid my boys and what I paid to keep myself going," Sandy said. "It's over three thousand dollars."

"Where is it?" Jarrod asked.

"If we get a deal, I'll take you to it and you can hand deliver it to the law."

"You may have to offer to do some time."

"No, I need a clean slate. I'm not gonna be able to get a job if I got time over my head."

Jarrod had to admit, the kid had thought this out and knew the practicalities involved. Jarrod knew he was taking a chance by taking the next step he was about to take, but he said, "I'll give you a reference so you can get a job."

Sandy's eyes lit up, and then grew suspicious. "You'd do that?"

"I wouldn't recommend you for a teller in a bank or anything involving handling money, but if you want a wrangler's job or something like that, yeah, I'd recommend you for that. What more can you put on the table?"

Sandy sighed. "I got nothing to offer but the money and giving up robbing stages and leaving the state. If that ain't enough, I don't know what else to do."

"Maybe with that and me giving you a reference – " Jarrod said, thinking. He wished he had some paper to write this out on. A signature by Sandy might mean something, too, but he didn't have any paper on him when they took him, and he wasn't sure Sandy or any of his men could read and write anyway.

Jarrod rubbed his forehead. Sandy leaned back in his chair. Then he reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a gold pocket watch. He handed it over to Jarrod.

Jarrod looked it over and saw the initials LRB on the back.

"It was my father's, Lewis Robert Bowes," Sandy said. "I don't have anything else that's worth anything. Take that to the law and tell them they can have it as part of the deal. They can sell it for some more money or something."

Jarrod opened it and eyed it closely. "This is a fine watch. Do you know where you father got it?"

"His father gave it to him," Sandy said. "It's all I got of the old man. If we don't have a deal, I want it back."

Jarrod eyed the boy. He wondered for a moment if this was legitimate, or did he steal this watch?

As if he could read Jarrod's mind, or maybe his eyes, Sandy said, "I didn't steal it. If you know anything about me, you know I only stole cash, nothing I had to sell."

Jarrod believed him. He knew he was taking a chance in going along with this whole agreement idea, but something told him it was worth the risk. This really was Sandy's father's watch. Jarrod felt dreadful about taking it, but it made him more certain Sandy Bowes was serious. He wanted a deal letting him off the hook and he wanted to start over.

Jarrod nodded and put the watch in his own shirt pocket. "Maybe I can get this idea to work for you. Is it all right if I leave now and see what I can do for you in Stockton? I won't tell them where you are, and I'll insist I come back to get you and take you in myself, alone."

Sandy hesitated. "Can't I just leave the state? Do I have to go in?"

"They'll want your mark on a paper setting out the deal," Jarrod said. "And it'll take a while to draw it up after I get to town. It would be tomorrow before I got back."

Sandy looked very uneasy.

Jarrod said, "I'll try to get it so I can get your mark out here and take you straight to Nevada, so you don't have to go into town, but I can't promise that. I can't promise anything, actually, except I'll come back, and no one will follow me. And I won't tell anyone where you are. If we can't get you a deal, I need you to promise me you'll let me go and be on your way without me. Even without a deal, you could still head out of state, maybe outrun the wanted posters, if we play it like this."

Sandy shook his head. "There's no outrunning the bounty hunters. That's the problem. I'm running a risk somebody will try to take me anyway if they don't know about the deal. But all right. You get going, tell them what I'll agree to. But if you're not back here by tomorrow night, or if anybody comes after me, I'm gonna make a run for it."

Jarrod understood. "I'll do my best for you, Sandy."

"I always heard you were an up and up man, Counselor," Sandy said. "Thanks for giving it a try."

Jarrod got up, nodding, and then he was out the door.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The search party was getting nowhere. They found tracks to follow but only for a couple miles before they lost them in the Stockton Road. Frustrated, angry, worried, Nick and Heath did not know what to do. Sheriff Madden was almost as frustrated. The men he'd brought with him were getting anxious to get back home.

Heath dismounted and tried to find some kind of tracks in the road, but it was pointless. He shook his head. "Too many tracks here. If Jarrod's are among them, I can't see them. There's just too much."

"I don't know what to tell you, boys," the sheriff said, sad. "If we don't have any tracks to follow, we may as well go back to Stockton."

Nick and Heath looked at each other. How could they go home without their brother, or at least finding out what had happened to him?

Sheriff Madden read their concern. "Sandy Bowes can be dangerous, but he's never hurt or killed anyone. He just robs stagecoaches."

"And now he's taken hostages," Nick said. "If he's changing his ways, he could do anything to Jarrod. He could find some other hostages to take too."

"But without knowing where to go from here, we're just shooting in the dark," the sheriff said. "It's possible that as soon as he gets what he needs from Jarrod, Bowes will let him go."

"If he does, Jarrod will probably head to town to talk to you, Fred," Heath said, but he wasn't optimistic Bowes would be letting Jarrod go. He looked down the road, wishing to high heaven some tracks he could use would appear, but this road was just too busy.

"What do you want to do, boys?" the sheriff asked.

Nick and Heath looked at each other again, then at the other men. They could tell everyone else had given up. Nick swore under his breath. Heath said, "Nick, why don't we go back to town and regroup? It's gonna be dark before long anyway. We won't find anything in the dark."

Nick reluctantly nodded, turned his horse and was the first one to leave to go back to Stockton. Heath could tell his brother was becoming grief stricken. The longer Jarrod was missing, the more likely he'd turn up dead, and Heath knew it too. But what else was there to do now?

The ride back to Stockton was in silence. No one liked not finding Bowes and Jarrod. Nobody liked failing the Barkleys, or failing in general. It grew dark as they rode, and as soon as they hit town, the men in the search party headed to their homes. The sheriff and the Barkleys headed for his office.

Heath saw it first. "Nick, Fred – look." He pointed.

There was a light on in Jarrod's office.

The men quickly hitched their horses and hustled over to Jarrod's office. The door to the street was unlocked, but none of the men were willing to believe it was Jarrod in there. They drew their guns and Nick was the first to burst through Jarrod's door.

At his desk writing, Jarrod jumped and went for the revolver he kept in his desk drawer. When he saw who had come in, Jarrod left the gun in the drawer and heaved a sigh. "Never burst in on a man who's been a hostage for two days, gentlemen."

"What the hell is going on?!" Nick yelled, holstering his gun. "We were just about to give you up for dead! Where have you been and where's Bowes?!"

"You found Mr. Wayne," Jarrod said and went back to writing quickly. "Is he all right?"

"Just madder than a wet hen and ready to punch Bowes out," the sheriff said.

"Yeah, that's why they tied him up," Jarrod said. "He kept swinging away and I couldn't get him to calm down so I could get everybody out of there. I kept trying, but - " Jarrod shook his head.

"How did you get away?" Heath asked.

"I didn't," Jarrod said. "You might say I'm on furlough."

"What are you talking about?" Nick asked.

"Wayne said you were working on some kind of deal for Bowes," Heath said.

Jarrod nodded and said, "And I'm just about finished writing it up. Fred, I know it's late but maybe we can find the DA and talk to him about this." He put the pen down. "These are the terms Sandy Bowes wants in order to give up robbing stagecoaches and leave the state."

"Are you telling me you're representing the man who abducted you?" Nick asked, yelling again.

"Yeah, I guess you could put it that way," Jarrod said. He finished his writing, blotted the ink on the paper he'd written, waved it in the air to dry it more for a moment, then handed it to the sheriff.

Still astonished about this whole thing, the sheriff read the paper, then looked up at Jarrod. "Is this legitimate?"

Jarrod took Bowes's pocket watch out of his shirt pocket. "Here's part of the deal."

Sheriff Madden handed the paper to Heath, and he and Nick read it.

"He convinced me he's on the level," Jarrod said. "He sent his whole cadre on their way, and for a big chunk of today it's only been me and him, working on these terms."

"How do you know he's not just gonna go back to his bunch and start robbing again?" Sheriff Madden asked.

"I don't know for sure, obviously, but I plan to escort him to the state line myself," Jarrod said, "and I've talked to him a lot. I believe him."

Sheriff Madden held his hand out for the watch, and Jarrod gave it to him. "This was his?"

"His father's," Jarrod said. "As you can see, it's a darned fine watch. He's throwing it in with returning all the money he still has from the robberies."

The sheriff heaved a sigh and gave the watch back to Jarrod. "Jarrod, you know what can happen when somebody's kidnapped. You can start sympathizing with your kidnappers. It just seems to happen to keep you alive."

"Fred, I've been taken a time or two before, and you know I usually have the opposite reaction. Sandy Bowes has never killed anyone, they didn't hurt Mr. Wayne and didn't even hit back when he tried to slug them, and I never felt seriously threatened at all," Jarrod said. "If we can get this deal with the DA, I'll go back to where Bowes is and get his mark on this paper. Then I'll take him to the state line and bid him good luck."

"You're risking your neck, Jarrod," Nick said.

"Not much I'm not," Jarrod said. "I told him it would be tomorrow before I got back with word if we have a deal."

"Where is he?" the sheriff asked.

Jarrod shook his head. "I won't tell you that. If we don't have a deal, then he's on his own with the law and the bounty hunters, unless I can talk him into giving himself up anyway. I'll try to do that, but I can't swear it will work."

"He could kill you," Nick repeated his worry.

"I'll risk it," Jarrod said. "I don't think he'd do it."

Heath handed the paper back to Jarrod. "Do you know what he plans to do when he leaves the state?" he asked.

"He says he plans to find a job," Jarrod said. "Says he can't get one with wanted posters hanging over him, and he's right about that."

"He's been good at robbing stagecoaches," the sheriff said. "Why would he want to quit?"

"I think he's just tired, Fred," Jarrod said. "He's little more than a kid himself. He's tired, and he's scared, and he doesn't want to run from bounty hunters and the law anymore."

"He could still find some bounty hunter after him who doesn't know he's gotten a deal."

"He says he's willing to risk that. I ran all of this by him, and he had plans for every eventuality I came up with. He's given this a lot of thought. We need to at least run it by the DA, Fred. We could end his run of stagecoach robberies, and it's not like we'd be letting a murderer loose on the public."

"No, you're right about that," the sheriff said.

"I'd feel better if we rode back to him with you tomorrow," Nick said.

"No," Jarrod said quickly. "No one goes with me, no one follows me. That's part of the deal."

Nick grumbled. "What am I supposed to tell Mother when you don't come home from this little rescue operation you've got going?"

"I'll come home," Jarrod said. "It might take me a while if I take Bowes to the state line, but I'll come home."

"A lot of this is your decision, Jarrod," Sheriff Madden said. "We'll go to the DA but you'll have to fight for this, not me."

Jarrod stood up. "I know. But the risk is small, and I think it's worth it."

Nick and Heath looked at each other with worry in their eyes for what seemed like the hundredth time today. Jarrod saw it.

"Give me a chance," he said. "I think I can make this work and it'll be better for everybody, especially stage coach passengers."

"Better still if we just go get him and lock him up," Nick grumbled.

"Maybe," Jarrod said, "or maybe someone will get killed trying."

"It's your decision," Heath said, and Nick reluctantly nodded.

"Let's go disturb the DA's dinner," Sheriff Madden said.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

DA Davison was not very happy to have his dinner disturbed, but he was happy to see Jarrod Barkley. Like everyone else in town, he feared the lawyer was going to be found dead, not alive and kicking and representing his kidnapper. So he took the time to read the agreement for nol prosequi that Jarrod had written up, and he looked at the watch Jarrod was carrying. "How much cash will Bowes turn over?" he asked.

"He assures me it's over three thousand dollars," Jarrod said, giving Davison the watch.

Davison looked from Jarrod to the sheriff. "What do you think, Fred?"

The sheriff shrugged. "It might be a real good chance to get a stage robber out of our hair, and get some money back. The downside, of course, is that he just goes back to his bad ways."

"We can put the posters back up if he does," Jarrod said. "We won't be any worse off than we already are."

"He also doesn't pay for what he's already done," Davison said.

"But we don't spend time and risk lives trying to bring in somebody who's never hurt anyone," Jarrod said. "Sam, I know this is unorthodox - "

"You just said he's never hurt anyone. But you think we'd be risking lives trying to bring him in."

Jarrod said, "Trying to keep yourself out of prison is different level of dangerous than robbing a stagecoach. He hasn't hurt anyone yet, but if a posse's trying to bring him in, it's a completely different situation. I don't want to see anybody get hurt in this, Sam. Do you want to risk it?"

Davison eyed the watch Jarrod had given him. "How much do you think this is worth?"

"I'll buy it myself for one hundred dollars," Jarrod said.

"How about one fifty?" Davison asked.

Jarrod had to grin a little at the absurdity of a bargaining session over the watch. "One twenty-five."

Davison nodded and gave him back the watch. "When you have the cash from Bowes, you bring it straight to Sheriff Madden, and Fred, you lock it up tight until we figure out what to do with it."

With that, Davison signed the agreement Jarrod had drafted and gave it back to him.

"Thanks, Sam," Jarrod said.

Davison said, "If this goes bad and you get hurt, I want your brothers' word that they're not gonna come after me."

"It won't go bad, and I won't get hurt," Jarrod said.

"You'd better be right," Davison said.

With that, Jarrod and the sheriff left the DA's house. Nick and Heath were waiting out front with the horses. They were both slumping, uneasy about this whole thing, but they straightened when Jarrod and the sheriff came down from the porch to them.

"Got it?" Nick asked.

Jarrod nodded. "Got it. I'm gonna get a room at the hotel for the night and head out early in the morning. I'd go now, but I don't want to come up on Bowes in the dark."

"Why don't you come on home, Jarrod?" Heath asked.

Jarrod had several reasons he would not tell them about. Mainly, he didn't want his brothers in a position where they could follow him easily in the morning. But he also didn't want to see his mother and sister before this deal was done and over. He didn't want them thinking he might be riding off in the morning and never coming back.

"No," Jarrod said. "It's best I stay here. Tell Mother I'll be home as soon as I can, but I'll be taking Bowes to the state line and we'll have to go on horseback. That'll take a while."

"You got a week to get there and wire us you're coming back, or we're coming after you," Nick announced.

Jarrod gave a little grin. "And just where will you look for me, Nick? Sorry, I'm not letting you trick me into telling you where I'm going."

"We'll find you anyway, Jarrod," Heath said.

Jarrod nodded. "I expect you would, but I'll be back before you know it. I'll wire you when I'm starting back, and I'll see you when I get home. Might take a little extra time on the way back and go fishing."

Jarrod mounted up with a grin and headed for the livery stable to leave his horse there. The sheriff and his brothers watched him go, and Nick muttered, "Damn fool brother of ours. We ought to tie him up and haul him straight home and this deal be damned."

"He's called you a fool a few times too, Nick," Sheriff Madden said. "Give him a chance. This just might work."

"Or get him killed," Nick said.

"If we try to follow him without him knowing about it, it could get him killed, Nick," Heath said. "He's right. We gotta let him do this his way."

Nick grumbled as he mounted up. Sheriff Madden bid them good night, and Heath mounted and followed his brother out of town.

XXXXXXX

Victoria and Audra were at the door as soon as Nick and Heath left their horses with Ciego and came in. Again, their hearts sank that Jarrod was not with them. From the tired, careworn looks on her sons' faces, Victoria feared the worst. "What did you find out?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

"We saw Jarrod," Nick said. "He's alive and he's fine but he's gotten himself into a situation with a client."

"What kind of situation?"

Heath said, "He's trying to arrange for Sandy Bowes to go free and leave the state."

"The stagecoach robber?" Audra said. "Why would he do that?"

"Because the boy kidnapped him and took him to Mr. Wayne's farm and kidnapped Mr. Wayne."

"My God," Victoria said. "Is Mr. Wayne all right?"

"Yeah, he's fine," Nick said. "He's free. Jarrod is still trying to work something out with Bowes. He set up a deal with the DA and he's taking it back to Bowes in the morning."

"Where?"

"We don't know. Jarrod wouldn't tell us. He said he's gonna take Bowes to the state line himself and he'd be back here after that. We told him we'd give him a week and then we'd be after him."

"A week?" Audra blurted. "You left him out there alone with a robber and we're supposed to sit here and wait for a week?"

"Audra, he got his stubborn up," Nick said. "He thinks he can pull this deal off and get Bowes out of everybody's hair and even get back some of the money Bowes stole. There wasn't any talking to him, Mother. He wouldn't let us go with him and we didn't want to follow him for fear we'd get him killed."

"Of course," Victoria said, resigned. She knew the risk Jarrod would be willing to take for a client in a situation like this. But she was frightened.

Nick gave her a kiss on the forehead. "Try not to worry, Mother. Jarrod's been in a lot worse jams than this."

"I think he's gonna make it work," Heath said. "He and this kid Bowes seemed to have it all lined up. All they needed was the DA to sign off, and he did."

"I hope you're right," Victoria said quietly. "You two better clean up. We were about to have dinner, and we can't go starving ourselves with worry."

Nick headed up the stairs, and Heath kissed Victoria and followed him. Audra quietly said, "I hope Jarrod knows what he's doing."

"He does," Victoria said, to convince herself as well as Audra. "Trust him. He does."

XXXXX

Jarrod was up before sunrise and riding out of town as the first light was coming up in the east. He was very careful to be sure that no one was following him as he rode. Not that he didn't trust the sheriff or his brothers, but sometimes Nick's tendency to take matters into his own hands overwhelmed him and he couldn't help himself. But Jarrod knew pretty quickly that no one was following.

His heart lifted as he rode, and before very long he was back at that fallen down line shack where Sandy Bowes was waiting. Jarrod rode in quietly, very visibly, and he called to the boy as he stopped and dismounted. The worthless wreck of a door to the place opened slowly, and Sandy came out.

"I got the agreement," Jarrod said. "Make your mark on it, and you're a free man."

Jarrod handed the paper to Sandy and Sandy looked hard at it. "I can't read real well. I want you to read it to me, word for word, before I sign it."

"All right," Jarrod said. He spotted a fire in the yard and a coffee pot there with it. "May I have a cup of coffee? I didn't eat this morning before I left."

"Sure, come on over here, have some food, too," Sandy said and led him to the fire.

Jarrod saw there was also a pan of ham and beans, just beginning to cook. Jarrod sat down on a log near the fire, took the spare cup and poured some coffee for himself. Then Sandy handed him the paper. Between sips of coffee, Jarrod read the whole thing to him.

"What's that word mean, nolprosequi?" Sandy asked.

"Two words, nol prosequi. We call them a nol pros," Jarrod said. "It means you won't be prosecuted for robbing any of those stages."

"So I'm free," Sandy said.

"Lead me to the money, and you're free," Jarrod said.

Sandy took a deep breath and grinned a little. "You might be a little surprised where it is." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small book and a piece of paper that looked like a bank draft.

Jarrod took them. The draft was made out to him, and it was for the entire amount of money the book showed was in the Stockton bank - $3145.72. It was signed in the scrawl of a name Jarrod couldn't make out, but it wasn't Sandy Bowes. He had opened the account in some other name.

Sandy chuckled. "I opened that account after we robbed our first stage. Whenever we got more money, I had one of my boys deposit my share. All that money we stole that I kept has been sitting under your nose ever since we stole it."

Jarrod almost had to laugh. "You're sure your boys have left it alone?"

"We never robbed banks, and the boy I sent to deposit in the first place would never rob me," Sandy said. "It's all sitting there for you to take out."

Jarrod folded the draft, put it into the small book, and put both into his shirt pocket. He folded the nol pros agreement and put it into his pants pocket. Then he pulled out the watch from his shirt pocket and handed it over to Sandy. "Here. The DA sold this back to me."

Sandy took the watch and laughed.

"I lost my father a few years ago," Jarrod said. "Granted, I was an adult when I did, but it still hurts to lose your father. You should have something to remember yours by."

Sandy nodded his thanks and pocketed the watch. "I think I'll like Nevada," he said.

"When you need a reference, you tell your boss to contact me at the Barkley Ranch, Stockton. I wish the best for you, Sandy. I really do."

"You've been decent to me and I appreciate it," Sandy said. "I'll do my best never to rob another stage or another person again."

Jarrod nodded. "I believe you."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Sandy made his mark on the nol pros agreement as soon as they finished eating. There was nothing else to do now but pack up and head east, out of California. When it came time to leave and they were mounting up, Sandy abruptly took his gun belt off and handed it over to Jarrod. Surprised, Jarrod wasn't sure what to do. "I got my rifle," Sandy said. "You got nothing. If we run into trouble, I want to make sure you can shoot back."

Jarrod nodded and put the gun belt on. It felt strange to strap on someone else's weapon, especially one that so often had been fixed on people being robbed, but he was glad Sandy felt safe enough to let him go armed. And he was glad to have a weapon on him, in case they needed it.

The Nevada line was a long, tough ride away. They moved further south and took a road Jarrod wasn't familiar with but was known to be more isolated than others. Jarrod half considered riding to a railhead and getting a train to Nevada, but he didn't trust that all would go well if Sandy was seen. Those wanted posters were still out there on him.

So they were riding all the way on horseback. They passed a couple riders on their way into the mountains. They both just tipped their hats and kept on going. Neither Jarrod nor Sandy had any idea if Sandy had been recognized, and they kept a sharp eye out for a while, but no one bothered them or followed them. It took several days to get anywhere near the California/Nevada line.

By the time they were only a few miles from the state line, Jarrod almost felt like they were going to make it to Nevada without any trouble at all. That was when someone took the first shot at them.

The road was coming down at this point and there were rocks to hunker down into. They got their horses safe and ducked down as securely as they could. Jarrod drew his sidearm and Sandy drew his rifle, but neither one of them could see where the shot came from.

"I don't want to kill anybody now," Sandy said. "I never killed anybody yet and I don't want to do it now."

"Let me have the rifle," Jarrod said.

They traded weapons. Another shot whined against a rock only a few feet away, but neither of them was hit. Sandy pointed. "Those trees down there."

Jarrod cocked the rifle and yelled, "Whoever you are, you best keep right on going because I've got a nice Winchester on you!"

Another shot whizzed by them, and a voice yelled, "I want Bowes! I'm taking him in!"

Jarrod yelled back, "You'd be taking him in for nothing! I'm his lawyer! He's got a deal and he's free! There's no bounty on him anymore!"

Another shot and they knew whoever it was out there wasn't in a believing mood. "Who the hell could have found us out here?" Sandy asked.

"Somebody who's been following us until we were good and isolated," Jarrod said. "Probably picked us up this morning. Sandy, trade weapons with me again."

Jarrod took the sidearm and gave Sandy the rifle. "What are you gonna do?" Sandy asked.

"Work my way around to our right, his left," Jarrod said. "If you hear firing, work your way in carefully. If I call you to come on in, it's safe."

"Mr. Barkley, you best let me do this."

"No," Jarrod said. "That's your rifle. You'll be better with it. Give me three minutes and you'll hear something or other."

Jarrod took off to the right, moving quietly through the rocks. Sandy took fire again from whoever it was shooting at them, and he returned a couple shots. The next thing he heard was more firing not aimed at him, then firing from the shooter's left, where Jarrod would have been. Then everything was quiet.

Until Jarrod's voice said, "Come on in here, Sandy!"

Sandy made his way carefully straight ahead until he came upon Jarrod and the shooter, in with the trees. A stranger was lying flat on the ground, eyes open, blood on his left thigh. Standing against a tree nearby, Jarrod had taken the man's rifle and sidearm.

Jarrod pointed to the man's horse, a few feet away in the trees. "Get his horse, Sandy. We'll tie him on and send him on his way."

The shooter tried to sit up, but his leg was bleeding bad and it was tough to stay up. "Give me something to stop the bleeding," he said.

"Use your kerchief," Jarrod said.

The shooter took his kerchief from around his neck and tied it around his thigh. It barely fit. Sandy arrived with his horse, and Jarrod pulled the man to his feet.

"Get up," Jarrod said, and Sandy helped the man up onto his horse. Using the man's own rope, Jarrod tied his hands and tied him to the horn of the saddle. "You know where the nearest town is back the way we came. Go see a doctor," Jarrod said and hit the horse on its rump.

They heard the horse disappear into the trees. Sandy started breathing again. "I never saw that guy before."

"Bounty hunter," Jarrod said, and suddenly he slumped to the ground.

Sandy ran to him. "Mr. Barkley, are you hit?"

"Lower left side," Jarrod said, beginning to breathe heavily. "I don't think it hit anything vital but it smarts."

Sandy took a look, then took his own kerchief off and folded it into a thick wad. "Here, hold this on it."

"Sandy," Jarrod said, "get me my horse and I'll ride back to where we just sent him. You gotta get on to Nevada."

"I'm not leaving you on your own," Sandy said.

"Listen to me," Jarrod said. "I need a doctor. If you try to go with me to that town and I pass out along the way, you're gonna get arrested."

"You think I'm gonna leave you alone when you might pass out and fall over in the road? Forget it."

"All right, then listen," Jarrod said. "We'll keep heading for Nevada. We'll go into the first town we come to. It's gonna be farther, but once we get there I can see a doctor and you can be on your way."

Sandy looked absolutely distraught.

"Come on," Jarrod said with a grin. "You had to have fretted over one of your boys at one time or another."

"Never got shot," Sandy said. "We never fired a gun or had one fired at us."

Jarrod chuckled. "You're the strangest robbers I ever heard of."

"Nah, just the luckiest," Sandy said.

Jarrod said, "Get the horses. Let's get going. We can make Nevada soon."

Sandy hurried and was soon back with both horses. He helped Jarrod get up in the saddle. It wasn't until that point that he remembered that Jarrod had the signed nol pros deal and hadn't given it to the law in Stockton yet. He looked at his lawyer, half doubled in the saddle but grinning.

"Don't worry," Jarrod said. "This isn't gonna kill me."

"It better not," Sandy said. "I'm still on a mess of wanted posters."

Jarrod laughed, but it hurt. "Let's get going. If I get dizzy, I'll let you know."

They pushed on toward Nevada, but they were still about four miles from the state line when Jarrod began to reel. Sandy scrambled down in time to get him safely out of the saddle and onto the ground.

"You can't go on, Mr. Barkley," Sandy said.

"Then you do this," Jarrod said. He pulled the nol pros agreement out of his pocket. "Take this with you to the first lawman you see. Tell him where I am and send help, and if you have to sit in a jail for a while, sit there. I'll clear things up when help gets to me."

Sandy looked terrified. What if Jarrod died before anyone could get to him? Who was going to believe this piece of paper if he, Sandy, was the one carrying it?

Jarrod said, "If something happens, you get the law to contact Sheriff Madden in Stockton. He'll straighten things out for you."

"Mr. Barkley, I don't want to leave you alone," Sandy said.

"There's not a lot of choice, Sandy," Jarrod said. He was sweating hard now and turning pale. "You hurry on, get somebody back here to me, and do like I told you. It'll be all right."

"All right," Sandy said. He took a quick look at Jarrod's wound and then took Jarrod's kerchief off and wadded it up. He replaced the bloodied kerchief with the clean one. "You hold pressure on this. I'll send somebody back as soon as I can."

"Sandy – " Jarrod said. "Don't you come back into California. If they don't keep you in jail, you keep going on into Nevada."

Sandy shook his head. "Sorry, Counselor, there I draw the line. When I send somebody back to get you, if I'm not in jail, I'm either leading them back here to you or staying right where I am until they bring you in."

"Sandy – "

"No! I know what I'm doing."

Sandy grabbed his bedroll from his saddle and put the blanket over his lawyer to keep him warm. He took the bedroll from Jarrod's saddle and put it under Jarrod's head. Then he tethered Jarrod's horse to a tree.

"You stay alive," Sandy said, "because if you don't, I'm never gonna forgive you."

Jarrod chuckled. "Go on. I'll be right here."

Sandy gave Jarrod's hand a squeeze. "Thank you, Mr. Barkley. For everything."

"Go on," Jarrod said with a nod.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Sandy was in a position he'd never been in before. He rode into the first town he came to in Nevada, and he went straight to the sheriff's office. The whole thing made him incredibly nervous, because the only thing he'd ever done before was avoid the law. Now he needed the law's help, and he wasn't sure if he was going to get it.

He half wondered if he should never have tried this harebrained scheme to earn his freedom, but then he thought he should have. Jarrod Barkley had come to believe in him, and he had a paper in his pocket that should free him once and for all. If he could get someone to believe him. If he could get help to his lawyer lying out there in the wilderness alone.

Sandy sucked his courage in and went into the local sheriff's office. The man inside was Jarrod's age, tall and blond, and he looked at Sandy with a blank expression. "Can I do something for you, boy?"

Sandy wasn't sure how to go about this, but he took the paper out and gave it to the sheriff. "My name is Sandy Bowes."

Sandy saw the sheriff react to his name. Sandy grew more nervous.

"That paper gives me a deal in California that sets me free," Sandy went on. "I'm not wanted anymore, but me and my lawyer were ambushed by a bounty hunter while we were traveling here. We sent the bounty hunter back in California, but he shot my lawyer, Mr. Jarrod Barkley, and he's about six or seven miles back, across the state line, and I need you to go get him and bring him here to a doctor."

"Okay, okay," the sheriff said, stopping Sandy from rambling on too much. "Where is he? What road?"

"West of town, the road that goes up into the pass up there. He's down on this side of it. He's bleeding pretty bad."

The sheriff looked at the paper again, not sure whether to believe it, but he knew the name Jarrod Barkley on it.

"Look," Sandy said, "Mr. Barkley went out on a limb for me and I need you to go get him. I'll lead you there if you want, or you can lock me up until you talk to him if you want. Whatever you want. Just go get him."

The sheriff got up. "You were on that west road?"

"Before it widens out to a decent road, about a mile further back from that," Sandy said.

The sheriff got up. "All right. I'll get the doc and we'll go get him, but I'm locking you up until we straighten this out."

Sandy couldn't believe he was saying this but he said, "Okay, lock me up," and he headed into the nearest cell willingly.

The sheriff locked him in, then locked the nol pros agreement in his desk where it would be safe. "Never seen anything like this before, but I guess I should expect it with Barkley," he mumbled as he went out the door to get the doctor.

XXXXXX

"Mr. Barkley? Mr. Barkley?"

Jarrod heard his name and opened his eyes. Two men he could only see as blurs were with him. One had opened his shirt and was tending his side. It took a moment or two for Jarrod to remember where he was and what was going on, but then he smiled. "Sandy got to you," he said, his voice rough.

"He's in my jail," the sheriff said. "He gave me a paper he says gets him free."

"A nol pros bargain with the court in Stockton," Jarrod said. "He's legitimate."

"I'm not really too keen on having stage robbers in Nevada," the sheriff said.

"His gang is gone," Jarrod said. "I'll vouch for him to get him a job. He's tired. He wants to quit running from the law and bounty hunters. Ugh!"

Jarrod cried out as the doctor probed his side a bit. The doctor turned him a bit then, and Jarrod cried out again as the doctor looked at his back. "The bullet is still in you, Mr. Barkley," the doctor said. "Lucky in a way. It plugged the bleeding up a bit. We have a wagon waiting down where the road widens, but you're gonna have to let us get you down there."

"Tell me what to do," Jarrod said.

"It's about a quarter of a mile," the sheriff said. "You just hold on and let us carry you there."

"My horse – "

"I already took him down," the sheriff said.

Jarrod felt himself lifted then, still wrapped in the blanket. The sheriff took him by the right arm and leg and the doctor took him by the left. It hurt a lot, but Jarrod did not pass out. It wasn't long before he was laid in the back of a wagon and the doctor began driving him to town.

Jarrod stayed awake the entire time, until the doctor put him under while he took the bullet out. Jarrod wasn't out for long. Something inside him kept wanting to be awake, to tell the sheriff Sandy was for real, that the agreement paper was for real. He woke up from the anesthetic mumbling that Sandy was a free man.

"Yes, he is," the doctor said. "He's out in the waiting area and wants to see you."

"Yes," Jarrod said, and in a moment Sandy was beside him. Jarrod gave him a grin. "I see you talked your way out of jail."

Sandy laughed a little. "You talked me out of jail. When they found out you were Jarrod Barkley and your name was on that paper too, they let me go. I wanted to stick around until I was sure you were all right."

"I'm fine," Jarrod said, though his tongue was still thick from the anesthetic. He raised his hand and took Sandy's hand in it. "You best be on your way. The farther you are from California, the better."

"The sheriff has the paper for you to take back to Stockton," Sandy said. "And since I'm not wanted in Nevada, he thinks I'll be all right. He wrote me out a pass that said I wasn't wanted anymore anywhere. Thank you, Mr. Barkley. I knew I took the right man off the Stockton road."

Jarrod laughed, remembering how being abducted by Sandy and his men was what got him into this. "Best kidnapping I've ever been subject to," he said. "Do me one more favor, Sandy. Wire my family in Stockton, tell them where I am. My brothers will come for me. By the way – where are we?"

"Rimfire," Sandy said.

Jarrod nearly fell off the table he was lying on. He looked at the doctor with eyes that were finally clear enough to see him. His old acquaintance, Dr. Saxton, smiled down at him. "Oh, my gosh," Jarrod sighed. "Seems I'm darkening your door again, Doctor."

"You're a lot more sensible this time, Mr. Barkley," Dr. Saxton smiled. "The last time we saw you, I wasn't sure you'd ever get to that point, but we've been reading about you in the papers from Sacramento, and we've been darned happy to see you've come around."

"Was that Sheriff Fain who brought me in with you?"

"It was me," the sheriff's voice said.

Jarrod saw him across the room, and now he was actually embarrassed. "Oh, this is about the last place I expected to end up. But I'm awfully glad to see you two gentlemen again and I hope I'm not creating the havoc I did the last time."

The sheriff smiled. "Not even close, Mr. Barkley, although this is another interesting escapade you've brought with you."

"You didn't tell Sandy about our previous meeting, did you?"

"No, we didn't tell him," the doctor said.

"Do I need to know?" Sandy asked.

"Only that I got myself into a heap of trouble here once a couple years ago," Jarrod said. "I'm not a saint, Sandy."

"You are to me," Sandy said. "I won't forget what you did for me, and I – " He reached into his pocket and pulled out his father's watch. "I have this to remember you by, as well as my father. I'll wire your family and be on my way."

"Get in touch with me if you need to, Sandy," Jarrod said. "And let me know when things work out for you."

"When?" Sandy said. "Not if?"

Jarrod shook his head. "You're gonna be all right. I know it."

"Let's get you moving, boy," the sheriff said and began to escort Sandy out. "Do what the doc tells you this time, Mr. Barkley, all right?"

Jarrod smiled. "Believe me, I will. I learned my lesson the last time."

"Well, two reformed outlaws to my name," Sheriff Fain said as he went out the door. "I'm having a good day."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

The Barkleys were pretty astonished to get a wire from Sandy Bowes, telling them that Jarrod had been shot and he was all right, but they needed to come to Rimfire, Nevada to get him. "Rimfire?" Nick and Heath said to each other right away.

Victoria and Audra understood. They knew Rimfire was where his brothers found Jarrod after he'd gone haywire with revenge after his wife was killed. "Rimfire," Victoria said. "I don't think he's in any legal trouble, but you better get there as fast as you can and see to him."

"Whoever would have dreamed this would all end up in Rimfire?" Heath asked as he and Nick headed upstairs to pack some things for the trip.

"We probably should have seen something like this coming," Nick said. "This whole thing has been strange from the get-go."

"From Sandy Bowes," Audra said, looking at the telegram. "I can't believe that stage robber would want to go straight, and I can't believe Jarrod figured out a way for him to do it."

"Well, it looks like he did," Victoria said, but she wished she could have seen her son since this business started and talked to him about it. Not that she didn't trust him. She just wanted to hear his reassurances. And now he was lying wounded in Rimfire, of all places. That wasn't a place of happy memories for him, or for any of them.

But then, Victoria thought, if this was really going to turn out the way it seemed to be going, maybe Rimfire could be a place of some good memories after all.

XXXXXXXX

Nick and Heath took the train to the railhead nearest to Rimfire, rented horses and got to Rimfire as fast as they could. Once there, they were almost as nervous as they'd been on their previous time there. Too many bad memories rested in that street. But they put that time aside and went to Sheriff Fain's office.

"Well, here we are again," Sheriff Fain said when they came in. "This place is like a magnet to you Barkleys."

"Not as bad this time as last time, we hope," Heath said.

Sheriff Fain actually smiled. "Don't worry, it's not bad at all. He's in the hotel, he's recovering just fine, and he's not in any trouble."

"What happened to Sandy Bowes?" Nick asked.

"He's not in any trouble either," the sheriff said. "He's already moved on further east."

Nick and Heath both breathed a lot easier. "Looks like we owe you thanks again, Sheriff," Heath said.

"This time it's been a pleasure," the sheriff said.

Nick and Heath went to the hotel and found Jarrod comfortably resting in the very same room he had been in in the hotel nearly two years earlier. "Déjà vu," Jarrod said to them as soon as they came in.

"Whatever that means," Nick said. "You just can't stay out of trouble in this town, can you?"

"No trouble this time," Jarrod said. "It turned out to be pretty lucky in fact."

"Yeah, the sheriff said Bowes has already gone further east," Heath said. "How about you? How are you feeling?"

"Not bad," Jarrod said. "A little weak, a little sore, that's about it."

"Has the doc said when you can leave?" Nick asked.

"As soon as I want, as long as we go home by the nearest rail station," Jarrod said. "I've got a horse in the livery we'll have to ship."

"We'll work it out," Heath said.

"Why don't we head out tomorrow morning?" Nick suggested. "We can't make the northbound today anyway, and one more day taking it easy won't hurt you."

"All right," Jarrod said. "Thanks for coming to get me. I'll bet everybody was just thrilled to get a wire from Sandy Bowes."

"Since it said you were all right, yeah, we were thrilled," Nick said.

"I'll get the horses to the livery and get us a room," Heath said and headed for the door. "We won't need to watch over Jarrod all night this time."

"I'm pretty glad about that," Nick said.

"You're not alone," Jarrod said.

As Heath went out, Nick said, "So, everything worked out with Sandy Bowes. I got to admit, I'm surprised."

"You didn't think I could pull it off?" Jarrod asked.

"No, not that," Nick said. "I didn't think the kid was on the up and up."

"It took me a little while, but I figured out he was," Jarrod said. "I'm glad for him."

"Where's the money he had stashed?"

"In the Stockton bank."

"In the bank?"

"All this time. I have a draft to get it out."

Nick shook his head. "I gotta tell you, this has been one bizarre adventure from start to finish, big brother."

Jarrod sighed. "Pretty satisfying in the end, though. Thanks for hanging in there with me. You could have followed me and grabbed Sandy before we ever left the valley."

"Where were you, by the way? Before you left?"

"In that old rundown line shack of ours. Pretty slick, huh?"

Nick laughed. "Pappy, you've been pretty slick through this whole thing, but I'm glad you're gonna be sliding on home now."

Epilogue

Once Jarrod and his brothers arrived back in Stockton, Jarrod went straight to the bank and cashed the draft Sandy gave him – and breathed a little easier when the money was actually there. He withdrew a hundred and twenty-five dollars from his own account and took the lot, along with the nol pros agreement with Sandy's mark on it, to the sheriff's office. Sheriff Madden looked at everything and laughed. "I really thought you were being had this time, Jarrod," he said.

"I had my doubts too, at first," Jarrod said. "It's never good when a man kidnaps me to be his lawyer. But the kid convinced me. And he came through, in a lot of ways."

"How are you feeling?" the sheriff asked.

Beside Jarrod, Nick said, "He's feeling like he wants to get home and get some more rest. We've got a buggy at the livery, Jarrod. Heath can ride your mount home. The buggy will be easier on you."

"And I've got a bunch of wanted posters to recall," the sheriff said, and he took Sandy Bowes's poster down off his wall.

"Fred," Jarrod said, "may I have that as a souvenir?"

Sheriff Madden smiled and handed him the wanted poster.

Jarrod smiled. "This is better than a fee."

XXXXX

Jarrod got a happy welcome home and for the next few days he took it easy. He was working in the library at home, not quite ready to spend a full day at the office in town yet, when his Mother came in, carrying a telegram.

"Audra picked this up in town," Victoria said. "We thought you'd like to see it right away." She handed it to Jarrod.

Jarrod stood up from behind the desk to read it – and the big smile that came over his face made Victoria smile. "It's from Sandy Bowes. He's got a job at a spread not far from Carson City, learning smithing. He needs a reference."

"I can't believe it, but I think this is all going to work out for him," Victoria said. "I never thought a stagecoach robber as successful as he was would give it up."

"He got tired, Mother," Jarrod said. "Tired of the law and the bounty hunters. I think he just didn't want to die an early death out there on the road."

"I can't say I blame him for that, but few outlaws come to that realization in time," Victoria said. "And while I could box your ears for putting us through all the worry you did, I'm glad you did it. I'm proud of you."

Jarrod took her into a one-armed hug. "I'm glad I did it, too. I hope it all works out for the boy. He worked hard to get a second chance at a good life."

"And he picked the right help," Victoria said, and she gave Jarrod a peck on the cheek.

The End


End file.
